Sister McKenna Watts - Chicago Illinois Mission: Week 41

Hola Familia. :) We had the most tender and amazing week. I feel like I need to apologize for not giving loads of details about the area, our investigators, and just my life here during the past few weeks. I LOVE IT. man. I am really just so happy to be serving here and to be a missionary right now. Miracles really happen every single day and I feel so blessed to be here. I love the people we are teaching, I love Chicago, and I love my companion. :) It has been really incredible to see how creative Heavenly Father is being with getting me the companions that I need to be serving with and learning from. I have been so blessed to have some of the most incredible companions. Sister McChesney got her visa this week, so she is leaving for Portugal tomorrow. I am so grateful that I have been so blessed to be her companion. She is one of my dearest friends and I really have learned loads from her. We have laughed so much and just have had an absolute ball together. I am so excited to see all of the good that she will do in Portugal. :) I just love her so much. There is one more week in the transfer so I will be put in a trio with Sister Johnson and Sister Prestidge. I am so super stoked to be their companion for a week. They cover the YSA Ward so, geographically they cover the entire stake (including my area) So hopefully we be able to do some work here because we have so many amazing things happening right now. :)

Group Contacting

We have been so excited about #HeIsTheGift. It has been absolutely the biggest tender mercy to be involved in such a special movement. We literally get to watch it work miracles in people every single day. It has been the coolest. :) Sister McChesney and I have set a goal to show the video whenever we can. We have been showing it to people on the busses and trains and have gotten an amazing response. From about the 30 times we have shown the video we have only gotten 1 negative response, which is incredible. That is totally a testimony to me of how powerful and touching this video is. Share it. :) I actually wanted to talk a little bit about that 1 moment. We were coming home from District Meeting we walked past this super darling girl and walked up to this other girl

A Sunday On LaGrande Jatte

next to her and showed her the video. When we got on the train I realized that the first girl that we walked past was sitting next to us. I felt super strongly that Heavenly Father really wanted us to talk to her and that he had given us a second shot. For some reason I was so scared to show it to her though? It was so weird. We talk to people and show this video countless times in a day and I knew that I needed to talk to her but I was so nervous. Earlier this month President invited us to "do something everyday that scares you." So I swallowed my fear and offered her to watch the video. She was totally for it. :) After the video though I asked her what she thought and she just wasn't super happy about it, but that's ok. That's not the important part. :)

But I left wondering why I would feel such a strong feeling to talk to her when she didn't end up being very receptive? But I totally believe that Heavenly Father was just testing my faith to see if I would be willing to do something that was relatively hard and scary. After we got off the train and started showing the video to more people Sister McChesney and I found 3 extremely prepared people who responded beautifully to the video and who all accepted the invitation to meet with missionaries. It was the coolest. :) Such a tender testimony to me that Sacrifice really does bring forth the power of heaven. Joseph Smith said once "when the Lord commands. Do it." I love that. :) It's ok to be scared and intimidated sometimes, but I have learned over and over again that we are blessed for being diligent, obedient and for being courageous. Sometimes it's hard, but the blessings ALWAYS come.

We had the super fun opportunity to go on exchanges this week. I really love exchanges, I learn so

The Nigerians

much on every exchange. While we were on exchanges we were so blessed to be able to teach some really fun investigators that the YSA sisters are teaching. They are both from Nigeria and are so receptive and excited about the gospel. They are actually on date to be baptized on Christmas Eve. They are the coolest. :) But they really have a hard time being able to come to church every week because they all work at a car wash that is just impossible for them to get work off. We had an amazing lesson with them that was completely spirit driven. It was just the coolest because nothing that we said was from us and none of the blessings that we promised were from us. It was completely from Heavenly Father. It was too cool. :) I just wanted to tell you that that happened because it amazes me every time. This is my Saviors work and it is so special that we get to be a small part in that work. It's incredible to me. I am so excited to get to work with those sweet boys for the next week because they were so amazing. I'll keep you all posted on how everything plays out.

We have the most incredible and amazing miracle that I am still in absolute awe about. :) WE FOUND A FAMILY TO TEACH. What? We found a family to teach. :) It is incredible. I always thought that this was one of those crazy amazing miracles that only happens to other missionaries, but no. :) It happens and it's happening here and we are so excited. So last week we were standing on the train platform and Sister McChesney saw the G****'s down the platform and she said "we need to get on the train with that family." So we worked our way over there and met the sweetest family in the whole world. It is a Mom and Dad and what was then 3 little adorable boys, T***** was pregnant with a little baby girl who was due in a matter of days. They are beyond darling. :) We had a really sweet conversation with them on the train and then asked if we could maybe come by later to share a message about Jesus Christ and to help in anyway that we could after she delivered. They were totally kind and gave us all of their information and told us when we could come back. We found out later, that right after we walked away Jamel turned to his wife and said "I think we met them for a reason." So cool. Because we absolutely did meet them for a powerful and profound reason. This family is so incredibly prepared. They have been through some very scary things and have had a lot of hard times in their lives. But they have decided to trust God in a very loyal way. They have so much "real intent" it's amazing. They are eager and excited to learn. :) We have been over twice now and both times we have had incredibly special experiences. We have taught about half of the restoration and they are just loving every single thing we say. I don't even have words for how excited we are to continue to teach this adorable family. :)

This work is amazing. I love seeing time and time again how many prepared people there are who are just waiting for us to talk to them. We meet incredible people every single day. I'm so grateful for this time that I have to serve as a missionary here. I'm happy.

I love you all so much and I am so grateful or the love and support you are all sending me. I am beyond grateful for all of the fun Christmas mail I have gotten from so many of you, thank you so much. I LOVE YOU.

Love, Sister Watts

P.s. Discover&Embrace&Share